Industrial Age Paradigm

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Resources

Industrial Age pages 28-31 of Windows on the Future by Jukes and McCain

Preparing Students for Their Future by Dr. Daggett Whitepaper

SKIM (ESPECIALLY PP. 1-4): Skills White Paper by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. This one is long so you might want to skim. The first 4 pages cover the history of education and would be most relevant to this topic.

OPTIONAL: Industrial Age Classrooms vs. Information Age Classrooms This is an optional resource. "On this page you will find a comparison between the Industrial Age and the Information Age, particularly as these differences correspond to classroom values, priorities, motivators, authority relationships, student berhaviors and discipline goals" (Industrial Age Classrooms vs. Information Age Classrooms, para. 1).


General Characteristics of Agriculture, Industrial, and Information Age Educational Systems


Agricultural Age:
  • Invention of writing with need to keep records of planting and harvests, taxation and barter, in agricultural age;
  • Education limited to an elite. (Earlier focus on oral traditions--from elders, during hunting and gathering age)
  • School calendar revolved around the summer harvest

Industrial Age:
  • Mass public education: similar standards for all, which was considered democratic;
  • An educated middle class seen as foundation for a democratic society;
  • Tradional educational institutions have monopoly on learning
  • Subjects were departmentalized (like assembly line approach of factories where workers only needed to know their task without an understanding of the whole process)

Information Age:
  • Diversified educational models necessary to meet diverse needs of students of all ages and different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds;
  • Lifetime learning necessary to keep updated in one's field, as technological and social changes escalate;
  • Retraining of industrial workers necessary;
  • Community and corporate learning centers, in addition to traditional educational institutions;
  • Distance learning, computer/multimedia/interactive educational packages, internet, and virtual reality as additional tools for learning.